My current work responds to what I call "cultural entropy"—a growing sense of disorder and noise that characterizes contemporary life. While technological progress has increasing influence over our sense of the world, this entropy manifests across media, politics, social structures, and information ecosystems. The more complex our society becomes, the harder it is to find coherence amid the cacophony of competing narratives and stimuli.
Studio and my related works invert this entropic principle. In nature, systems tend toward disorder and require energy to maintain structure. My artistic process deliberately engages with chaos, using Adobe's generative fill algorithms to specifically generate chaotic and messy imagery.
I have a love/hate relationship with Ai image generators. My process for these images grew out of my frustration with the limitations of Ai algorithms to produce an image larger than 1024 x 1024 pixels. In order to get around current size limitations I began with a simple image prompt: a close-up detail of a shattered computer monitor, and then expanded the composition outwards, square by square, into the surrounding empty space of the digital canvas. This methodical expansion mirrors our attempts to create meaning from cultural fragments. While a final composition was vaguely in mind from the start, the process only allows for piecemeal decision-making and the end result was unknown by necessity.
The process is both generative and collaborative. I dictate the concept and the individual forms, guiding the Ai toward specific visions, but other times allowing unexpected elements and mistakes to reshape my intentions. This dialogue between artist and tool reflects our broader cultural condition: we simultaneously shape and are shaped by the systems surrounding us. Much as we interact with the larger world, we control what we can but must accept things that we are hopeless to change. But here, even "errors" become opportunities, influencing the composition's evolution in ways that reflect our complex relationship with contemporary disorder.
Shamus Clisset
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2023
Unique (+AP) archival pigment print
65.25 x 44 in.
Pinned to wall, Contractor Grade frame
Signed on verso
This token represents the ownership over the unique, original print, to be received by the token holder. The original purchaser of this artwork will receive the physical framed print, with shipping paid by the collector. Upon resale, the accompanying physical work shall be shipped to the new owner at their cost.
